Washoe County School District is less than two years from completing a district-wide construction project that will secure every school — elementary, middle and high — with fences and installing new locks on classroom doors, officials said.

The $4.8 million district-wide fencing project is set to be completed by May 2014 with 6-foot chain-link fences around each school, Capital Projects chief officer Mark Stanton said.

Funding is from rollover bonds and police grants, Stanton said. Capital Projects, a contractor that performs more than 350 Washoe County School District projects each year, is completing the construction.

Thirty-six schools have been completed, including two high schools, Sparks and Reed. Wooster and Hug high schools are in the process of being completed. Fifty-six schools have yet to be completed.

The goal is to increase safety by establishing a single entry to deter intruders and making school lockdowns easier, District Police Chief Mike Mieras said. The new fences will also reduce graffiti and truancy, he said.

“By completing this, we know the only way someone gets on campus is through administration,” Mieras said.

Many regional schools, mostly elementary, already had fences. Those schools will get updated fencing to create a single point of entry.

“In many cases, it’s a very simple thing,” said Joe Gabica, director of planning and design for Capital Projects. “In some cases, the fences were already there (so) we just had to block up holes. In other cases, we had to redo the landscaping, irrigation and the different project designs.”

In addition to the new fences, Sparks High also has instituted a closed campus this year for freshmen and sophomores. Underclassmen carry maroon school IDs so administrators know they aren’t allowed to leave during school hours.

Patti Allyn, assistant principal at Sparks, said academic warnings are down this year compared to this time last year and student participation in clubs is up.

“It’s been a big adjustment for the culture of the school, but it’s gone very well,” she said.

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Four district high schools have closed campuses: North Valleys, Spanish Springs, Damonte Ranch and Hug. Wooster and Sparks have modified closed campuses.

“We have seen truancy improve on closed campuses,” Mieras said.

Most Sparks students have adjusted well to the closed campus, but some sophomores who were allowed to leave campus last year are not in favor of the policy, Allyn said.

Sparks sophomore Angie Stephenson said she thinks the school changed the policy to eliminate truancy and nothing else.

“I don’t think it’s going to stop students from ditching class,” she said. “I know a lot of students who ditch class.”

Nevada Parent Teacher Association spokeswoman Tami Berg was concerned about the intention of installing fences and questioned whether the district was trying to make campuses more secure or simply trying to close the campus to keep students in.

“The district definitely has a challenge ahead of them to make as many people happy as possible,” she said. “But maybe that is not the issue. Maybe they will just say it’s safety and that’s it.”

Berg emphasized the importance of securing elementary schools. She said high schools were less of an issue for parents.

“At the safety standpoint, elementary is where my main concern is,” she said.

Door locks

Along with a fencing project, Capital Projects is re-locking many classroom doors.

“One thing we noticed was, for teachers to secure their classroom, they had to physically put their key in the outside of the door and could not lock from inside,” Mieras said.

Most district high schools were lockable from the inside, but many of the district’s older middle schools did not have new locks, he said.

All district schools are expected to have new locks within the next three years, he said.

“The goal is to make our campuses as safe as we possibly can, but still make them look nice,” Mieras said. “Security and safety is No. 1 priority, but we want to make aesthetics look well.”